tomorrow afternoon 4:30, president obama lights the national christmas tree outside the white house. house speaker john boehner said today that he's still waiting for a response from the white house on the g.o.p. deficit reduction proposal. they spoke to reporters in the capitol for about 10 minutes. >> good morning everyone. you know, this week, we made a good faith offer to avert the fiscal crisis and that offer included significant spending cuts and reforms and included additional revenue. and frankly, it was the balanced approach that the president's been asking for. now we need a response from the white house. we can't sit here and negotiate with ourselves. our targets and framework are things that we can all agree on. and it's exactly how we approached our discussions in the biden group, my discussions at the white house a year and a half ago and for that matter, in the joint select committee. and if the president doesn't agree with our proposal and our outline, i think he's got an obligation to send one to the congress. and a plan that can pass both chambers of congress. if yo